Fighting erupts in northern Mali

FRESH fighting has erupted in northern Mali between ethnic Tuaregs and an unidentified armed group, the latest violence in the wake of a French-led campaign that drove radical Islamists from major cities.

Tuaregs of the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) were fighting on Saturday what one source said "seemed to be Arab fighters" near the northern town of Tessalit, where suicide car bombers killed three people a day earlier.

The al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebel group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), has claimed responsibility for the bombings in In-Khalil near Tessalit, saying they were specifically targeting the MNLA, which has been co-operating with French forces to flush out Islamists from northern Mali.

"Through the car bombings against MNLA elements in the In-Khalil zone, the MUJAO is committed to pursuing jihad against infidels," group spokesman Adnan Abu Walid Sahraoui said in a statement sent to AFP in Bamako.

On Thursday, MUJAO also claimed an attack in the northern city of Kidal where a vehicle exploded near a camp occupied by French and Chadian troops.

The mountainous region between Tessalit and Kidal is strategically important, seen as a stronghold for many Tuaregs and used by Islamists as a hideout from French forces.

France sent in troops on January 11 to help the Malian army oust Islamist militants who last year captured the desert north of the country.

Since then, thousands of soldiers from African countries have also deployed, and France plans to start withdrawing its troops next month.

In Saturday's statement, the MUJAO spokesman warned that future suicide attacks are planned in Mali's capital as well as in the capitals of Burkina Faso and Niger, whose troops are part of the African force in Mali.

"Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey remain favourable zones for our suicide bombers who are ready to make the planned attacks," he said, without elaborating.

He also demanded that the groups holding French hostages in the Sahel region and in Niger kill their victims in revenge against France, which he accused of "staging a crusade against Islam and Muslims".

Seven members of a French family, including four young children, were seized by kidnappers in Cameroon on Tuesday and are believed to have been taken over the border into Nigeria.

French-led forces met little resistance during the initial offensive that drove the Islamists from the main northern centres of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

Now, however, they are facing a guerrilla campaign that includes sudden raids, suicide attacks and land mines.

On Friday, Chad, which also has troops Mali, suffered its heaviest losses so far after clashes with Islamists in the mountainous northern Ifoghas region.

The Chadian army said the fighting claimed the lives of 13 Chadian soldiers and 65 Islamists.